1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to wireless networks and, more specifically, to a client device configured to connect with a home network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Home networks, in which multiple computing and/or peripheral devices are communicatively linked together in a consumer's home, are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. A home environment may include one or more computers, a wireless router, a dsl modem, and one or more other devices capable of connecting to the home network. Conventionally, each device in the home network must be individually configured to connect to the network and, once configured, may then communicate with each of the other devices attached to the home network.
In practice, however, procedures for establishing and provisioning services on a home network are typically too involved for the majority of home network users to implement reliably. For example, a network user may need to manually reconfigure the home network router, determine a network IP address and/or hostname for each device, establish network credentials, register the various services for each device, etc. Furthermore, in order for a device to locate another device on the home network, a device must establish communication using a unique IP address of the other device. Such connections are typically defined as peer-to-peer connections. A user may be required to manually keep track of which address is associated with which device or service in order to configure the devices to communicate on the home network. The manual configuration procedures described above make it a challenge for unsophisticated users to reliably setup a home network and provision services on the home network.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for systems and methods that reliably and conveniently enable the user of a home network to automatically configure and provision devices to connect to the home network.
For clarity, identical reference numbers have been used, where applicable, to designate identical elements that are common between figures. It is contemplated that features of one example embodiment may be incorporated in other example embodiments without further recitation.